


The Dreams In Which I'm Dying

by Cocopops1995



Series: Friends Are Family [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Nightmare, Panic Attack, Season 4 Spoilers, and gets to break down, keith gets hugs, season 4 compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-26 22:08:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12567272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cocopops1995/pseuds/Cocopops1995
Summary: Keith has a nightmare after the evenst of s04e06. Hunk helps him through it.





	The Dreams In Which I'm Dying

**Author's Note:**

> For Platonic VLD Week. Day 1: Sleep/Nightmare

He was burning. Flames were all around him. They licked at his skin and their smoke stung his eyes. He was burning and he was being crushed. Everything was crumpling around him until he was wedged between scorching hot walls. He was dying and he was alone. The flames grew hotter, melting his skin. The walls crumpled further, crushing him further. And he screamed.

He surged into wakefulness, choking on his screams. He could still feel the heat of the fire on his skin and the pressure of the walls closing in on him. The smell of his own burning flesh still clung to his skin and he couldn’t breathe!

Suddenly there was a hand on his face and he hissed as the coolness of it burned his flaming skin. 

“Keith. Come on, man. Look at me. You’re okay, just look at me.”

Keith searched wildly for the source of the voice speaking to him. He knew that voice. That was a good voice. That was a safe voice. 

Finally, his wild eyes landed on the face that the voice belonged to, and it took him a few seconds to recognise it as Hunk’s 

“That’s it Keith, now just breath with me. Big breath in,” Hunk took a big breath and Keith tried to do the same, “And slowly let it out.” 

Air streamed out of Keith’s mouth much faster than Hunk’s did, but Hunk nodded encouragingly and said: “That’s okay, just keep trying and you’ll get it. Let’s go again, big breath in…”

They carried on like that for what felt like at least an hour, but couldn’t have been more than a few minutes, until Keith was finally able to calm his breathing. 

“Feeling better?” Hunk asked.

Keith felt terrible, but at least he could actually breathe again, and he didn’t feel like he was being burned alive anymore, so he nodded once.

“Crappy nightmare?”

The feeling of simultaneously crushed and burned was still all too fresh in his mind and he shuddered.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Hunk said, “Do you want to tell me about it? I know you probably don’t want to, but I’ve found that it helps.”

Keith shook his head, he really didn’t want to talk about it. But his brain obviously wasn’t in complete control of his mouth and tongue because, even as he shook his head, he said: “Burning.”

“Burning?” Hunk asked.

He didn’t really want to elaborate, but it seemed as if some flood had been let loose and the words poured out of Keith’s mouth, telling Hunk everything.

“Oh man.” Hunk said once Keith was done and pulled him into a hug, “I wonder what brought that on.”

It didn’t sound like Hunk was expecting an answer, but as Keith melted into Hunk’s embrace the answer came to him.

“I nearly crashed into Haggar’s ship’s force field.” Keith said so quietly he doubted Hunk actually heard him. It was the first time he’s said the words out loud. The first time he’d told anyone about it. And he didn’t know if he felt better or worse for it.

But Hunk’s hearing turned out to be better than Keith thought. “Wait, what? When? How? I mean, you’re an amazing pilot! I can’t imagine you making a mistake like that.”

Keith flinched at Hunk’s words and debated not telling him exactly what had happened. He didn’t feel like he had the energy to have this discussion right now, or to deal with Hunk’s reaction. But he could feel Hunk’s questioning gaze on him and for some reason he couldn’t keep the words inside. So he told Hunk everything. 

Hunk didn’t say anything once he finished. And the silence, coupled with the reality that he had come so close to actually killing himself suddenly hitting him hard, was just too much. Tears spilled out of eyes and suddenly he was sobbing into Hunk’s shoulder. 

Hunk’s arms tightened around him and Keith could hear him murmuring words, but he couldn’t make out what they were. Instead he clung to Hunk and cried and cried. He cried like he hadn’t cried since the news of the failed Kerberos mission came out. Like he hadn’t cried since his mom left him. He cried until he couldn’t cry anymore. 

When he finally calmed down he slowly became aware of the meaning of words again. 

“- having a really, really bad night.” Hunk was saying but it didn’t sound like he was talking to Keith.

He was proved right a moment later when Lance said, “Oh, man. Do you want me to get anything? I could go make some of that space hot chocolate you made the other day.”

“Good idea, Lance.” Hunk answered, “The both of us could really use a cup of that, right now.”

Keith heard footsteps moving away and assumed that Lance had left. He figured that he’d better get ahold of himself so he could be less of a mess when Lance got back.

“Is there anything else you need?” Shiro’s voice sounded and Keith actually jumped, having not expected to hear him at all. 

Hunk hushed him, “It’s okay. Shiro’s just here. Aaaand so is Pidge.” moment after Hunk said that, Keith felt a new, smaller set of arms wrap around him from behind and squeezed him tight. 

“Is there anything you need Shiro to get for you while we wait for Lance to finish making the hot chocolate?” Hunk asked, his voice softer than Keith had ever heard it. 

Keith wanted to shake his head, but then he realised that his throat was really dry, so he croaked out: “Water.”

“Got it.” Shiro said, “Be back with that in a moment.”

Keith listened as Shiro’s footsteps disappeared. He was back in less than a minute and Keith finally forced himself to lift his head from where he had buried it in Hunk’s shoulder.

By the time He’d finished drinking the water, which felt like absolute heaven on his throat, Lance had returned with a tray full of steaming mugs. 

Shiro took one off the tray and handed it to Keith.

Keith took a sip and felt his eyes go wide as the warm, creamy liquid flowed over his tongue and down his throat. He’d heard the others calling it hot chocolate, but he hadn’t expected it to actually taste like chocolate!

He looked up at Hunk in wonder, “Where did you…?”

Hunk chuckled, “This one planet we visited while we were doing the coalition tour! They have groves and groves of actual cocoa trees! Don’t ask me how, but I guess if we can find a cow in space, anything’s possible. But yeah, they actually gave me a tree, which I planted in Kaltenecker’s room, and now we have a constant, fresh stock of cocoa beans for all our choclate needs!”

Pidge giggled, “Yeah, it’s amazing! You should have seen Allura and Coran’s faces when they tried the hot chocolate!”

Lance laughed, “Man I thought their heads were gonna explode!”

Hunk chuckled again, “It was even better than when I introduced them to milkshake.”

Lance burst out laughing, “Oh man, I didn’t tell you guys…”

Lance launched into a story of how Allura and Coran had asked him to help them get more milk from Kaltenecker and their reactions to him milking the cow, and soon Keith found himself laughing along with his friends. 

Afterwards, the others started telling Keith about how Coran had accepted some form of alien brain worm from an Unilu and all the antics that ensued.

And Keith felt as if a hole inside him had been filled up. He would have to tell the other about what had happened yesterday, he still didn’t know how Hunk felt about it. But that could wait until later. For now, he was happy to just spend time with his friends.

When he finally went back to sleep again, his dreams were filled with his friends and creamy space hot chocolate.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr at noisypaintersong.tumblr.com
> 
> Like my work? Please consider [buying me a coffee](https://ko-fi.com/W7W3KRCZ) :)


End file.
